Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed happiness over Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti election results, saying people have rejected the BJP’s ”lies and propaganda”.
He said there is no anti-incumbency in the state and these results show the Congress will form the government again in the state in 2023.
He also alleged the BJP resorted to horse-trading to win Jaipur Zila Pramukh polls where Congress rebel Rama Devi won as a BJP candidate.
Gehlot said the same people are involved in this horse trading who tried to topple the Rajasthan government last year.
The results of three phases of voting were released on Saturday for 200 Zila Parishad members, 1564 Panchayat Samiti members in 78 Panchayat Samitis in six districts of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Dausa and Sirohi. The elected representatives Monday elected Zila Pramukhs and Pradhans. Both the BJP and the Congress won three Zila Pramukhs each.
”For the past one year, BJP’s Union ministers and local leaders were continuously making statements against me. Six contenders for the post of chief minister of BJP made rhetoric against me and the state government without arguments and facts. I never answered them but today the public has shut their mouths by giving a befitting reply,” Gehlot said in a statement.
He said people have given a big mandate by blessing the Congress and have wiped out the BJP from the government of the villages. The anger of the farmers and the rural masses towards the BJP is clearly visible in these election results, he said. Even the central ministers campaigned, but the public did not fall for their lies and propaganda, he alleged. People have given a clear message to the BJP that they should stop dreaming to form a government in Rajasthan, he added.
”The people of the country have made up their mind that now they will teach a lesson to the BJP in every coming election,” Gehlot said. He said that out of 1,564 wards of Panchayat Samitis, the Congress won in 670 wards (42.77%), BJP won 551 wards (35.17%) and independents in 371 wards.
Most of the independents are also Congress-backed candidates, he said. Out of 78 panchayat samitis, Congress candidates won on 50, the BJP just 25, he said, adding out of these also, 10 Pradhans won by a margin of just 1 vote.
Similarly, in 200 Zila Parishad wards, the Congress won 99, the BJP 90 and others 11. The Congress got majority in four out of six Zila Parishads, and managed to form boards in three places.
“If the Congress government had misused power like the previous BJP government, this would not have been possible,” he said.
Source: PTI
